Cease Fire
by Mita427
Summary: Andros, Zhane, and Karone return to KO35 with the rest of the rangers after the final battle. What they find upon arrival isn't what they thought they had left behind many years ago.
1. Chapter 1

**_Cease Fire_**

_AU mostly after C2D, just pretend Karone joins the group and they still have all their powers. _

_Disclaimer: I don't own anything._

_Summary: The rangers return to KO-35 after the final battle. What they find upon arrival isn't what they thought they had left behind those many years ago._

**Please review! It determines whether I continue posting this fic or not. If you want more, I'll post more. I'm a newbie at PR so, bear with me.**

* * *

Home. To many people that would be a house, white picket fence, 2.5 kids, and a brown or black dog, depending on their preference. Nevertheless, to a certain few it means KO-35. A strong colony of humans, living together in a distant part of the universe. Finally, after attaining some peace and thriving for relaxation, the rangers had come to the homes of their friends to discover a new land and get the rest that they undoubtedly deserved. The day came quicker than they all imagined, but no one was complaining.

"500 meters and descending, " DECA announced with her red light blinking.

His heart beat a little faster, but it didn't show. "Prepare for landing," he calmly instructed.

The other rangers nodded and headed towards their stations. Throughout the weeks and months, everything fell into place. Being on the Astro Megaship was their home away from home. It was second nature for them to repair the engines or to battle Quantrons on the simudeck. Sometimes they never wanted to leave and other times they couldn't wait to get off the ship. However, the nerves and anxiety that filled the room seemed to display that some weren't ready to step off their second home too soon.

"I can't believe KO-35 is making a comeback already. It just seems like yesterday we were fighting Dark Spector, huh Andros?" Zhane asked his best friend, excited about coming back home.

"Yeah," he said absentmindedly as he watched his home get rapidly closer and closer on the main viewing screen.

"Let's just hope Karone didn't burn the land to a crisp," Zhane added with a smirk.

A nice, audible smack on the head was the Karovan's response as she walked up from behind him. Karone crossed her arms and shook her head at Zhane who was muttering profanities while rubbing the back of his head. The other rangers enjoyed a good laugh and it was something that Zhane had them doing very often. But Karone was never going to live down the days as Astronema, at least, not if Zhane had anything to do with it.

"You know Zhane, you should be happy _you're_ not burnt to a crisp," Karone added with mock sternness which caused him to become wide-eyed.

"We all know his brain already is," Andros smiled as he walked up to his sister, arms crossed.

"What is this? 'Let's All Poke Fun At The Silver Ranger' day? Do _you_ see me laughing?" Zhane tried to defend himself.

The mood had changed so much from the days of fighting against evil and saving people's lives. The rangers were a lot more relaxed and they didn't hesitate to have a little more fun once in awhile. They all definitely deserved the well-needed break and no one was blaming them for going on a mini-vacation. The Earth rangers finally got a chance to see the homeland of their good friends. KO-35 was a land unexplored for them and they were excited to be able to share this experience. As for Andros and Zhane, this was the first time that they were going to be back home before the invasion. They didn't know what to expect.

"Karone, could I talk to you for a minute?" Andros seriously asked his sister quietly.

"Yeah, sure," she answered and they headed off.

The main viewing screen lit up with the lush green land of the planet and the rangers slowly gathered around it.

"We have landed on KO-35," DECA announced

The rangers glanced around each other, not knowing what to do or even say. Some had finally arrived home and others had finally arrived to their escape. The land looked somewhat forest-like. Nothing like what any of them had expected. It seemed like they had landed in a patch of woods, far away from any type of civilization.

"Well, let's go!" Zhane urged as he started walking towards the doors.

"Shouldn't we wait for Andros and Karone?" Ashley asked Zhane.

"They're probably talking up a storm, come on, I want to go back home. They'll come soon enough," Zhane insisted and started pushing his friends towards the doors, "They can handle themselves, and don't be such babies."

TJ looked menacingly at the silver ranger and couldn't help but crack half a smile, "What are we gonna do waiting around anyway. I guess Zhane is right. DECA, would you let Andros and Karone know?"

"Affirmative," DECA responded and the rangers hurried onto a planet where many memories still floated about and new ones were ready to be created.


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

"Karone, I don't know if I can do this," Andros admitted as he wrung his hands together. 

"What do you mean? This is our home. You've wanted to come back for so long, why the cold feet now?" Karone questioned, rather, thought out loud.

"I don't know. You don't know what happened here. It was bad Karone, really bad." He said with a solemn face away from her. When he didn't get a response he turned to look at his sister to see that her eyes glistened with unshed tears.

"I **do** know, Andros. I might be Karone now but I haven't forgotten about the time when I was Astronema. I am Astronema, and I am ashamed of all the pain that I have caused. But it still doesn't make the hurt go away," Karone confessed, "I have it worse than you. You tried with everything that you had to protect your people, while I destroyed them. Me, a Karovan myself. That is the worst betrayal there is."

"But that wasn't your fault-" Andros began.

"I had free will, didn't I?" Karone interrupted. Her brother's silence spoke more than words ever could, "I wasn't forced to do anything, but I did it anyway."

Andros forced himself to look away as he realized that she wasn't just talking about herself anymore. His mind was reeling with thoughts and feelings that he hadn't let out in such a long time. Those thought and feelings that he had left behind so many years ago were finally coming to the surface. With his eyes cast downwards he lost himself until someone pulled him back out.

"The fall of KO-35 wasn't your fault, Andros. You had no control over what was happening and what you did was the best that you could do. You can't keep beating yourself up over this; you can't change what happened in the past." Karone said as she placed a soft hand on her brother's shoulder.

Andros closed his eyes and forced the tears to stay behind closed doors. He wasn't going to let this take him over, "I did something I swore I would never do, Karone, and that by deceit." He said with an air of anger.

"There's a first time for everything?" Karone said with a questionable tone to her voice, which caused him to crack a smile, "Come on, what do those Terrans say? Let bygones be bygones or something like that. It's in the past, we have to think about today. And today we're home and we're going to have a good time, am I clear Mister?"

"Yes, maam," He whispered.

"What?" Karone asked loudly.

"Yes, maam," Andros said with a little more confidence.

"There we go, now let's get off this ship and get to our home!" Karone squealed with excitement.

Andros laughed at his sister's excitement and couldn't resist himself. Her delight was contagious and she was the same Karone that he remembered from when they were children. They always leaned on each other for help and this was no different.

"DECA, where are the others?" Andros asked.

"They have already descended onto the planet." DECA replied.

"Figures," Andros said matter-of-factly, "You know we have to do something about Zhane, a sedative or a gag or something."

Karone just laughed with her hand over her mouth to control her outburst. She was glad that Andros was beginning to feel better about going back to KO-35. Then, she smiled broadly and grabbed her brother by his arm and led him back home.

* * *

The rangers walked onto a lush, green planet. The area was so clean and pure it seemed as if no pollution, nothing had tampered with the affects of nature. It was beautiful. After they walked through the land, the rangers were amazed by the planet's simplicity and of course its beauty. It was like stepping back in time when there were only the simple things. The trees rose high into the crystal clear sky and the land was rich with life. The forest buzzed with the sounds of unseen creatures and the wind swayed the branches. It was definitely different from Angel Grove and the hustle and bustle of a city. 

"Wow," Ashley said as she surveyed her surroundings. Her eyes grazed high into the trees and into the wilderness.

"It's like the Amazon or something," Carlos said as he shooed a bug away from his head.

The rangers continued moving their way through the brush and trees and took in everything that they could. From the smallest flower to the biggest tree everything was new and exciting to them and they were discovering a new land, which was easily enough, almost exactly as their own.

"Whoa!" Zhane exclaimed as he placed a hand through a bush to reveal what it was hiding.

A large grey building stood in the distance. In the most beautiful and yet strangest of places stood someone's home. The building had several large windows into which the light shone through. But the building wasn't like any home. The rangers stared in awe at the sight and realized that this was not the house they were expecting to see. It wasn't like the houses on Earth where a large yard covered the front and the back and which had doors and windows adorning its faces. It looked, which bluntly, like the megaship, except, well, homier. It was obvious the thing was not going to fly off anytime soon, although the rangers wouldn't be surprised if it had the capability to do so. Its futuristic feel had the rangers drawn to it like bears to honey and they didn't even realize that their footsteps had taken them closer and closer to the admired place.

But suddenly, a loud growling startled the group and their eyes focused on something a little more important. Two large animals appeared poised about twenty paces in front of the rangers. Their shiny coats were adorned with angry orange and black stripes, they stood about 15 feet fall, and their teeth were bared in warning. They looked like large tigers but they had a more feral element to them that was indescribable. Their bright blue eyes contrasted greatly to their coats and anger was clearly evident in them.

The rangers stood in shock and fear, neither of them knew what to do. None of them dared to move as their heads craned up to stare at the creatures that stood before them. They watched as the animals' chest swelled and collapsed in anticipation and bodies shook in excitement. Out of no where, the rangers saw a change, a subtle yet startling change. The creatures turned their heavy heads towards each other and one gave a low, evil growl to the other. Slowly, their heads turned back towards the frightened rangers, and one of rangers saw a glint in their eyes. As the wheels turned in the rangers' heads, Zhane's instincts told him that those untamed beasts had only one thing in their minds. And Zhane did the first thing that came to his mind.

He hoped that his voice wouldn't fail him this time when he shouted to his team mates, "Run!"

* * *

Phew! A long awaited update of almost a year, jeez. I hope you guys enjoy this because I've been slaving away at work and sneaking in some writing at the same time. I can't promise frequent updates but I can tell you that I am definitely thinking about writing more, maybe in long intervals, but I definitely will be writing. 

Thank you to _Challon86_, _Star Fata_, _AH/AY_, & _Rodan427_ for reviewing and bearing with me!

With that said, I need a beta ... really bad. This chapter is completely unproofread (if that's even a word.) I just wanted to get it out there so that you guys could read it and enjoy and possibly give me some pointers. :) Anyway, thanks for reading and let me know what you think! And potential beta-readers, send me an e-mail at **mita 427 hotmail. com** or just leave me a message here.


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

"Wow" seemed to be the word of the day as Karone awed at the sight before her. The same beautiful area that the other rangers had already passed though laid before her eyes and she took it all in from one corner to the next. 

"It's so beautiful. Look at everything, it's so peaceful and serene," Karone said.

"Yeah," Andros replied, none too enthusiastically. Karone turned her head to see what was upsetting her brother. She didn't understand why he was such an emotional roller coaster, that was something she knew very little about. If she knew her brother like she thought she did, there was something deeper inside of him that was really making him squirm.

She thought about it while she studied his face. He definitely wasn't happy about something. His emotions were easily read on his face. "But this isn't where you wanted to be, is it?"

Andros sighed. His shoulders slumped and his hair fell around his face. He looked completely defeated.

"I just wanted to go _home_, Karone," He said after a moment.

"But this _is_ home, Andros. This whole planet is home," Karone tried to convince him.

But Andros seemed to like his train of thought better, "I thought I had set the coordinates right. It should've brought us to …" He trailed off, "Let me go check-"

"Oh no, you are not going back on the megaship now, buddy," Karone said as she grabbed Andros by the arm and prevented him from turning back, "Not after we've come all this way. We're here, what's a little more walking, huh?"

She tugged on his arm, "Come on, it'll be an adventure."

Andros just let Karone pull him along and he listened to her as she talked about the various things that she saw. But his mind wasn't clear yet. He was still thinking about his home and everything that was here before. His thoughts were still plaguing him and he was obviously a nervous wreck. Would the people of KO-35 still accept him? What about the ambassadors or the emperor? He avoided going home for so long and now that he was here, there really _was_ no turning back. Now that he had finally found Karone, he couldn't keep her away from the place that she once called home. Karone was the only person keeping Andros from fleeing his home after wanting to come back for so long.

"Look at that house!" Karone gasped, throwing Andros out of his thoughts.

The siblings gazed upon the same house that the other rangers had stumbled upon and witnessed their first piece of Karovan civilization.

* * *

"_Mother, why are we here?" A little Andros asked as he tugged on the hem of his mother's space uniform._

"_This is our new home, Andros. We live here now." His mother replied with a smile and knelt down to his level._

"_Why do we have a new home?" Andros asked another question._

"_Well, since your father has a new job, we can live in this nice, new house, do you like it?" His mother asked her little boy._

_Andros thought about it for a moment. He looked at his surroundings and everything just looked so big. The walls went high up into the sky and the floors just never seemed to end. The house was undoubtedly larger than their last one since Keyann, Andros's father, got promoted to be a Representative of KO-35 in the counsel. Everything had changed so quickly and the five-year-old Karovan boy just didn't understand why._

"_I wanna go home," Andros muttered as he fell into his mother's embrace._

_Aidrianni gave her son a gentle squeeze and ran a comforting hand on his head. "You'll get used to it, I promise."_

* * *

"Look what you've got us into now!" Ashley yelled to Zhane as she ran for her life. 

"What?! This isn't my fault!" Zhane defended himself as he dodged a bush.

"If we had just stayed on the megaship," Cassie countered and then decided that screaming was a much more suitable tone, "WE WOULDN'T BE HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"Well," Zhane panted, "You agreed to it!"

"SHUT UP, ZHANE!" Was the only reply he got from his fellow teammates as they continued their retreat.

They all ran as fast as they could. They criss-crossed and jumped over obstacles and did everything imaginable to try and escape the grasp of the beasts. It didn't help that they were on flat land, easily seen by the fierce eyes of their predators. Oh, and their bright space uniforms. But, nonetheless, they kept running, since that was the only thing that they could do to save themselves from getting mauled, or worse, eaten. And no one ever looked back.

Apparently, out of nowhere a rock appeared in front of TJ and before he knew it, he was sprawled on the soft green grass, almost eating dirt in the process. He heard his name being called out sometime during his fall but he only had one thing on his mind. With wide eyes he took a look behind him, hoping the distance between him and the creatures was a million miles away, but what he saw was something totally unexpected.

He saw nothing...nothing but the trees and the underbrush of the forest. TJ's eyes only fell upon the open forest around him and his ears caught the sound of the other rangers coming to a halt. He let out a breath he didn't know he was holding and let his body relax on the ground. The cool ground felt amazing on his heated body after going for an impromptu run. Beads of sweat had formed on his face and TJ raised a heavy hand to wipe his brow.

"TJ! Are you alright?" Cassie said as she kneeled down in front of her friend.

"Yeah, I'm fine," He replied as he stood and dusted himself off.

"What happened to those … things?" Carlos asked as he looked around.

"I don't know," TJ answered as he placed a hand on Carlos' shoulder, "But I'm just glad they're not here."

"Maybe they were protecting something," Ashley suggested, "Maybe we got too close to something?"

"We got too close to that," Zhane realized as he peered over a set of thorny bushes.

The same house that they had seen before stood only a few paces away from the rangers. They stood a good distance away from it, hopefully away from the sight of their most recent enemies.

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Here's another chapter for you guys! Please review and let me know how I'm doing!

I want to thank Challon for beta-ing for me, she's the best, go read her fic! Hope everyone enjoys!


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